"Green" Expressions I

All right. Take a step back, grab another cigarette, don't go off into a rant about "Green Guilt" and ....

Ahem.

I hate wasting things. Or rather, my brain won't LET me waste: it can always come up with a use for something, no matter how trivial it may seem. I have to make the most of the money I spend, and the most of what I can magpie.

Case in point, and. You slab, you shape, you facet, you polish -- but what about all that "garbage" rough leftover? With just a bit of non-linear Pooka-style thinking, you can reduce your wasted material by at least 50%.

(Note: I'm not going to go into my usual intricate How-To instructions at this time, these are merely ideas. If there are requests for detailed projects, then I'll worry about working up tutorials.)


Mosaics are easy to accomplish.

• There are hundreds/thousands of mosaic and pattern books available ("Green"-cough- tip: Check out Half Price Books and other used book stores. You can also find sites and references online. Just download and print as needed.)

• Rough can be used as is, tumbled, or given a polish. If you slab and cab, you can easily create custom shapes out of the "junk" to use as tiles. Since there are multiple methods for placing your tiles, your shapes don't even need to be perfectly flat to be used. Some of that "garbage" can be surprisingly pretty after the tumbling cycles. BONUS: When you're cutting stones down, you're going to have the perfect variety of hues and tones to create a very intricate dimensional piece.

• Historical references are a perfect place to start. There's fabulous inspiration in Central American mosaics, the works of Antonio Gaudi (practice your GoogleFu here!) ... the list is a very long one. You'll get a really good idea of just what you can do with all those leftovers.

• Lots and lots of leftovers from big slabbing projects or multiple tumbler loads are perfect for testing grout colors. Just do small 4x4 squares, applying the tiles with your favorite appropriate adhesive (Be warned: silicone for glass has a STANK to it. It doesn't bother me, smells like dyeing Easter Eggs, but my family gags on the vinegary stench.), wait till it dries, and create samples so you know you've chosen the right grout to work on the right project.

• Get an "ugly" gemstone -- faceted or cabs -- in an order, but you don't want to bother with the cost of shipping it back to return or exchange? (Seriously, if you paid less than C on a stone that should cost Zx5, and shipping is N, then loupe it, examine it, learn from it, and find another way to use it. OH CRAP, I DIDN'T KNOW THERE'D BE MATH! I'll ramble on about the fun of included stones at a later date.) They make fantastic accents in mosaic pieces -- including mosaic jewelry. Eyes, mouths, teeth, petals, buttons, bubbles, fish scales (man, I wish I'd had some "crappy" faceted stones when I did my fish tank vase: garnets, carnelian, and citrine would have made fantastic fish scales!) -- you get the idea here. Garbage has suddenly become a nice pricey mosaic!

• By any other name ..... Think dendritically! "Inlay," "intarsia," "mosaic," "multi-media collage," -- it doesn't matter what you call it, you're painting with stone.
  

Resin jewelry is a great use of leftovers. Using the resin, you can place stones into the molds to create some interesting mosaic jewelry with no grout or adhesive other than the resin that holds it all together.

• Larger single stones make great focals in resin pieces, as well as nice tiny accents in collages.

• Mix a small amount of resin, just enough to cover the bottle of your properly prepared mold. Follow the instructions for curing time before adding a second layer. Using tweezers (with my shaky hands, I prefer cross lock tweezers), carefully lay your stones onto the first layer of resin. Top off the mold with mixed resin, and let cure. Calibrated molds can be used with regular cabochon mountings of the appropriate size.
  

Think about "fairy bottles" you've probably seen. Tiny glass vials for jewelry making are available from multiple sources, and some are quite elegant. I have one with filigree work that I need to complete for Thing 1, so I'll get Thing 2 to take a photo when the piece is done. Cheap, too small, or unmatched gemstones are gorgeous in the bottles, as are the "cast-offs" -- you know, those ridiculously tiny pieces of rough that always seem to accumulate. Don't waste them! Tumble them up, the super-mini chips can be lovely.

Speaking of Tumbled Stones ....

• Of course, not all stones can be tumbled or polished. Books and GoogleFu are your friends for learning the Mohs value of a particular rock or mineral to be tumbled. Stones of a similar hardness should be tumbled together for the best results, as harder stones can seriously abrade and wear down the softer ones.
  
  
• Tiny chips don't need to be tossed out - toss them IN the tumbler instead. They're useful as filler, and make good filler for display in bottles, jars, and anything that will let light bounce off the polished surfaces.

• Waste stone can be tumbled and wire wrapped, or drilled for use as beads. Thinner, translucent pieces can make gorgeous suncatchers (tutorial on request).
  
  
• Check those tumbled stones carefully, using a mm gauge. If you don't have one, get one. They're cheap -- even the digital calipers are now quite affordable. I love mine, as I'm getting blind in my old age. You might just find that some are close enough in size and shape to being calibrated for use in standard mountings.
  

If you've cut cabs, slabs, or faceted stones from a piece of rough, and have some larger waste chunks, consider bookends, shaped/carved paperweights, cup holders. This is definitely more collector oriented, as there's an attraction to displaying a larger prepared specimen that your precious stone came from. Gem in the rough, anyone?

If you're in the trade and selling stones with a documented provenance, history, pieces all shaped from a single huge piece of rough, from documented closed down mines or mined out sources (Sweet Home, yes?), run a poll to see if your collector customers would be interested in pieces of rough that their gemstone came from. I guarantee you'll get takers, and thumbnails, micromounts, and handheld specimens don't have to be flawless, perfect color, or worth working to be of interest to collectors. Note: Documentation? Is a good thing. Certification can even be used as part of a display: piece of rough, piece tumbled, piece faceted, certifcate, with a nice sharp microscope photo to use as the background. EXTRA NOTE: I'd LOVE a piece of Nigerian rubellite rough, if anyone has or knows how to get their hands on a small bit.

Some of those leftovers might hold potential you haven't thought of or dared to try yet. There are several treatments for your stones that you can do at home without professional equipment or dangerous chemicals, provided you follow the instructions and all proper safety measures are taken (ie, heated stones CAN explode, or explode when cooled too fast).

You got to use the skills to pay the bills. :D

That way, you can afford to buy more toys!

Speaking of jewelry ...

Yes, the first Weekender post will be this weekend, but I've been totally forgetting to post a few other pieces.


Apparently I have a little thing for copper. The small swirl links with the crystals above the dragonfly are the chain. The dragonfly is two pieces -- the wings, and the body -- both hammered to give it some texture and dimension. I get compliments every time I wear this piece.


Polymer clay is fun, too! I used a face mold to shape her, with scraps from a butterfly wing cane I made (eyes and forehead), some mica-shift, a bit of translucent, and the blues. Heavy duty glue put her on the backing piece, then I started the rings around it in TINY seed beads. The tiny silver ones are faceted Charlottes.

The face cab is completed here, with several more rings of seed beads, then the daggers over the top. It has great movement with the daggers. This will eventually go on a bracelet.

Sometimes I love chain mail, sometimes I hate it. This is a Hate project. It's a knot-pattern chain, and getting all those rings into the knots made me insane. My daughters want one. They aren't getting one.

I feel all sparkly

Surgeon General's Warning:
The surgeon general warns you that the Pooka is thoroughly medicated thanks to a doctor visit today and while I can almost, ALMOST, type, getting anything ELSE is going to be a several hour-long trial. Be patient, get the rum and the popcorn.... and be ready to run.


It may be chilly or downright cold some nights and there But I'm a firm believer is that, if can pretty yourself up, that you're going to feel better, especially while being trapped, bound, and gagged from usefulness.

Sure, there's seasonal goodies thrust madly into faces, mothers doing the old fabric applique trick on sweat shirts that get hurt when you don't wear it All The Time.

Don't leap to conclusion by me having a new blog entry, You can leap. So, here in this little.... "retro rook"

Dancing Dragonflies.

Sold to a lovely Hobbit lass in the UK. Matching earrings. The long center silver dragonfly is jointed, so each segment moves. The silver and pearl strand is part of the necklace design and is attached at the clasp, which is also a dragonfly. You can only see one of the earrings hanging from the chain -- also made to match. Model: my eldest Thing 1.

Earthbound

Model: Thing 1. Full set: earrings, necklace, and bracelet. The smallest rounded coin shapes are actually glass designed to look like the jaspers and agates that make up the other stones. Swarovski crystals and tiny glass beads as spacers. The looser look to the bracelet is deliberate. Since the earrings and necklace were all very clear and clean in form, I wanted something a little looser for extra texture, so I took more of the long block agates, paired them with the larger jasper coins, and made a double/single strand, with some wire visible to give it a feel of motion.

Indigo swirls.

Inspired by a pattern in Margot Potter's Impatient Beader book. Even the above dragonfly necklace took some inspiration from her, seeing that she had two necklaces that focused on my favouritest insect, so I combined to make something that worked for me, and then it obviously worked for the woman who later bought it.
The big sparkly disco ball cluster that inspired this particular piece wouldn't have worked for my eldest, who was wanting something darker and deeper. We found these blues, and she went berserk -- yep, that was it.
The bulk of the design is built around blue sodalite, including the pendant. Swarovskis and seed beads complete the design. It's not as hard as it looks, it's just time consuming and definitely requires having a plan ahead of time.

Said and aforementioned Thing has another of those swirl necklaces, all in red and white, I believe. I had one in amber, agate, citrine, and red jasper, but I think it may have gotten sold. There is, however, a small problem (an eleven year-old problem) which may be the reason why that necklace cannot currently be found -- considering that Thing 2 really has no idea where ANYHTHING she owns is, much less something she "borrowed." Lemme tell ya, THAT gets old.

And now, my Ambien is saying that it now needs to sleepy time.

Clear Ether! (I will personally make sure a present is sent to the first reader that knows where that phrase comes from)

Bracelets, Faeries, and Quality Control

My quality control inspector has been quite busy. I'm not entirely sure if he approves of the felting process (mostly because it keeps him out of my lap).

The following three bracelets were for an order, and have been shipped and received.









"I believe in faeries..." This is the 'simple' version of this bracelet. I've yet to do the complicated version -- just not capable yet.





And the felting ....


The colours are off here, I was experimenting with my camera settings. The next two pictures show about the correct colouring for the felt. This will be a wrist cuff when completed.

Only the dry felting has been done so far -- wet felting being beyond me at the moment.



I want my life and energy level back. Now.

Lighter cover -- tubular peyote

This was a fun project. I picked up a great coffee table book called "Gold of the Pharaohs", and it had some wonderful examples of Egyptian beadwork in it.

I picked out a few colours that were close, and just started beading.

Tubular peyote, no pattern, Delica beads. I just winged it as I went, loosely basing it off the bracelets of Queen Ahhotep. The middle section has the hieroglyph "Nefer", meaning beauty.



The colours are off in the photo, the gold is very antiqued-looking, and the red and turquoise aren't quite so bright.

Dragonfly (in progress)

When completed (I've already got the ultrasuede cut for the backing), this will be the centerpiece on a collar.

Ignore the cat hair visible in the work. My boys "help" me when I work, including trying to eat the thread. They feel a piece isn't complete until they shed on it.



The antennae will be twisted wire and beads.
Combination of 15/0, Delicas, 11/0 hex, #1 and #2 bugles.

I've got some lovely AB matte Magatamas to go around the outside.

Closeup of a wing:



Yes, I know some of the beads aren't flat, the piece puckered a bit as I worked, but it's not finished and I'll go back and ensure that everything is down right and secure before adding it to the suede backing.